Dawgs Softball in Israel | ñåôèáåì éùøàì - äãåâæ

Second year of Docustar sponshorship. In the photo: LtR, top row: Coach Don Kates, Mitch Mandell, Noam Zwilling, Mark Horowitz, Phil Olenick, Ariel Rak, Aviv Yaakov. LtR, front row: David Jaffee, Yoram Ozeri, Joe Omen, Shmuel Goldstein, Amnon Eisner missing: Lowell Blackman, David Lieberman, Aharon Kurtz, Jeremy Shai --------------------------------------------------- This year, we saw the second year of sponsorship by DocuStar, a technical writing company. Noam Zwilling, in the spring, really came in to his own as a pitcher, and we *were* looking forward to having him in the long run until he informed us of his emigration to the US in the summer. In the meantime, Shmuel has been working on pitching, but he is not quite ready for it yet. Don Kates came in to coach, but stayed with us for just the spring season. In the fall, the team almost didn't play. At the last minute, we teamed up with ZionTours, and had a reasonable successful cooperative effort. During the fall, the pitchers were Blair Portnoy, Shmuel, and Jeremy. It was at this point that Shmuel started to show his ability as a bona fide pitcher.

This year, we changed sponsers to DocuStar, a technical writing company based in Raanana. We also saw the addition of Marc Bodner as a pitcher, at least for a while. Marc also brought in a few good guys like David Jaffee, and Ariel Rak. This occured because the split between the ISA and the "Jerusalem Leauge" was complete, and the Aztek team went over to the Jerusalem guys. But there were some Aztek-ohs who still wanted to play a high level ball, and Marc brought them over. We got a hot player from the BV folks: Jeremy Clark. Noam could not be with us this year because of Army duty. Shmuel started to pitch a few games in the spring. See the attached article. The "relief" mentioned in the article was Phil Olenick, who came in and pitched modified fastpitch. Shmuel left the game because he was exhausted, and was getting wild. Crazy Richards is a team that will wait and wait and wait for the pitcher to give them a good pitch. They won't cut you any slack, unlike Dimona, who just want to whack the ball. So, since we were ahead at the time, about 10 to 5 (?), and it was the 5th inning, and we felt really good, we decided to let Phil finish up, and Shmuel went to the outfield. As you can see, it was a good decision. Phil did a good job of keeping them down, we scored a few more, and the rest is history. The fall saw the temporary addition of Ami Baran to the team, to "give us a lift". Which he did, as he is an excellent pitcher. However, the writing was on the wall when, at one game that we were leading 6-0, Ami fell and was injured. He could not finish the game, so Shmuel had to step in. He was not prepared, and we ended up losing the lead and the game. Which just goes to show that we *must* develop our own pitching, and not rely on "imports". List of players: Phil Alexander Ami Baran (fall) Marc Bodner Jeremy Clark (spring) Danny Epstein Shmuel Goldstein Avi Goldschmidt David Jaffee Jack Kurtz Isaac Kurtz David Lavin David Lieberman Phil Olenick Joe Omen Yoram Ozeri Ariel Rak Bear Reidenberg

This is the third year we are sponsored by Glomar, and it will turn out to be the last. We had some a promising addtion by the name of Noam Zwilling. Noam has a great arm, and gave us a genuine pitcher. His favorite bit before a game was to go out to Center Field and try to throw the ball all the way to the catcher. Remember, this is *softball*, not baseball, and that ball is harder to throw a long way. Noam always made the distance, in this and in his pitching, but his accuracy was another issue. Noam was wild, folks, and this webmaster remembers one game in which he walked 10 guys in a row. Why didn't we replace him? We didn't have anyone else. He also can hit, and field. But the big news for 1999 was the famous and unfortunate split in the ISA between the "Jerusalem" teams (Rise-Hi, Savvy's Baggers, Hadasah, and Jump, aka NetMedia). It was a personality conflict in addition to them wanted to play what amounted to rec ball, and the rest of the ISA interested in more serious ball. During 1999, Aztek stayed with us, but in 2000, they, too went to the Jerusalem league. In addition, 1999 saw the disintegration of the Delta-3 team. 1999 was the first year that the new sports law came in to affect, which requires each player to undergo a stress test. The ISA, being the national official league of softball, requires each player to do this, and the Jerusalem guys didn't want to. But it was a pain in the ass for everyone else, too, and the teams didn't get their act together much before late May, can you believe it? So, we played from late May, tried to do it throughout the summer (very hard to play in August - everyone's on vacation), and through the fall. Mixed results. Glomar (soon to be Docustar) had the ignominious distinction of being on the receiving end of the "stand-up" by the Delta-3 team. There was a game scheduled in September, the field was paid for, the lights were on, we were there, the umpires were there, and Delta-3 DID NOT SHOW UP. Not a single person. Needless to say, they were kicked out of the league immediately, and fined. Ah well. BUT, in the end, we had a whole bunch of games, with Noam pitching most of them, and Shmuel pitching some of them. All in all, a helluva good time. List of players: Phil Alexander Mike Ben Ari Steve Epstein Saul Fine Joel Freimuth Shmuel Goldstein Avi Goldschmidt Jack Kurtz Isaac Kurtz David Lieberman (lebo) Phil Olenick Danny Sheer Haggai Shinar Shimshon Tencer Nafti Wexler Yitz Zahavi Noam Zwilling

Glomar continued to sponser the team this year. The second year of this team. First whole year of Shmuel being Manager. We had better looking shirts this time. See photo, taken June 1998 at Kibbutz Gezer. Picutred are (l to r): Howie Shiff-Miller, David Lieberman ("Lebo"), Jay Zauderer (who has since gone on to be President of the IAB, can I have your autograph Jay?), Shmuel Goldstein, Kalman Yurman, Aharon Bianco, Mike Ben-Ari, Steve Epstein. Kneeling is Eliahu Genesov, next to Jay's son Daniel. Laying down like an arabian prince is Yitz Zahavy. During the summer of 98, Ami Baran of "Bobs Boys" ("Penticon" as of 2003) did a pitching clinic, and we brought Phil Olenick (good arm), Aharon Bianco (wild, in more ways than one), and Shmuel (great curve). Teams in the ISA for 1998: Bob's Boys, Tigers (now Movers), Crazy Richards, Shomrat, Aztek, Glomar, Beit Shemesh (now Machsan), Savvy's Baggers, Hadassah, NetMedia (now Jump), ZionTours, Rise-Hi, Delta-3)

First year sponsor: Glomar Vertical Blinds. Glomar's first year of Shmuel being on this team. Actually, Glomar had sponsored a team in the past together with Aztek Software, and the team was called Aztek-Glomar. But this was before your Great Webmaster was on the team, and therefore is relegated to pre-history. Glomar itself was actually created by the ISA, and Peter Baker was asked by David Gilor to manage it. He did in the spring, but in the fall, had had enough. Shmuel took over. First year's performace for this team was rather appalling, at least in the spring. We played only 11 games, and won none. The only team we threatened was Pioneer and BeitShemesh, but still, we couldn't do it. Spring 1997 was actually the zenith of ISA activity, with 19 teams (wow!): Bob's Boys, Tigers, Crazy Richards, American Embassy (TA), Shomrat, Aztek, Glomar, Beit Shemesh, Savvy's Baggers, Hadassah, Gal-On, Arch-Sems, Kalia, NetMedia, Gezer, ZionTours, Rise-Hi, Pioneer (later Delta-3), American Consulate (Jerusalem). These teams were divided into 2 or 3 divisions as follows: A: Bob's Boys, Tigers, Crazy Richards, Shomrat, Gezer, Rise-Hi, ZionTours B: American Embassy, Aztek, Savvy's Baggers, Hadassah, Arch-Sems, Kalia, NetMedia C: Glomar, Beit Shemesh, Gal-On, Pioneer, American Consulate B and C quite often were played against each other, but the A's were all windmill pitching teams. B and C were modified pitching teams, which has the stealing and bunting of windmill, just without the windmill itself. In the fall, Glomar did better, winning to Beit Shemesh and Pioneer, tieing with Aztek, and losing to ZionTours. The fall also saw a serious drop in the number of teams. These teams disappeared, never to be seen again: American Embassy, Gal-On, Arch-Sems, Kalia, Gezer, and the American Consulate. List of Glomar players (some in the spring, some only came on in the fall): Aber, David Baker, Peter Ben-Ari, Michael Bianco, Aharon Epstein, Steve Gilor, Dov Goldstein, Shmuel Gorodezter, Ron Katz, Roni Kenig, Gedalia Lieberman, David Schiff-Miller, Howie Shriber, Jacob Slater, Avraham Wexler, Nafti Weinhaus, Sammy Weiss, Oren Zauderer, Jay Davids, Judah Leishner, David Bernstein, Tzvi Kalman, Josh Hartman, El-Ad